23 September 2021
Media: Rotorua Daily Post
Topic: Weather callouts
Enquiry
Just checking in to see if council contractors have had many if any, callouts for weather-related issues in the region this morning?
Response
Reporter was advised that Council had received 2 reports of surface flooding on the road - Hamurana Road and State Highway 33 in Mourea.
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Media: Rotorua Daily Post
Topic: COVID vaccination
Enquiry
I am working on a story about how local businesses and organisations are working to encourage and incentivise vaccinations among their workforce. I just wanted to approach Council in case you would like to provide comment for the story.
How is council encouraging staff members to get vaccinated?
Are there any incentives in place?
Can you provide any information around how many of your staff in Rotorua have already received their first jab?
In general, are most staff expressing a willingness to get vaccinated? Can you provide any comment around this?
Response
From Joe Akari, Director – People and Organisational Development:
Rotorua Lakes Council has provided staff with information about how to book their vaccine and encouraged them to do so.
In the interests of everyone’s safety we would love to see a high percentage of our staff fully vaccinated against COVID-19, however it is up to the individual whether or not they choose to get vaccinated.
We do not have any incentive schemes in place.
We do not hold data on how many staff have received their first or second jab but from conversations that teams are having with each other, it would seem there has been a willingness for a lot of staff to play their part and get vaccinated.
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Media: Stuff
Topic: MIQ facilities
Enquiry
I am working on a national feature about the state of MIQ and if we need more facilities outside of hotels for people to self isolate.
After talking about prefabs being a potential, we were told by the company Transbuild that they've actually been in talk with the council about providing buildings for MIQ on a piece of land they own that was meant to be used for a highway.
Are you able to comment on this?
Response
Reporter was asked for more detail so we could determine what she was wanting from council.
We asked which department at council Transbuild spoke to and whether they had lodged a consent for something, noting that if so, we would be able to confirm that but if they just contacted council for info/advice then we wouldn’t be in a position to make a comment or provide information.
We reinforced that Council is not responsible for decisions relating to MIQ – that the agency responsible for MIQ is MBIE.
And we asked if the reporter was aware that Minister Hipkins had confirmed Rotorua had been discounted for more MIQ. We provided the link to the Minister’s release regarding that decision (HERE on the Beehive website.)
NOTE: reporter subsequently indicated she did not require any information from Council
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Media: Stuff
Topic: Government's MIQ decision
Enquiry
Wanted to ask if it'd be possible to get a few lines from Steve re the news Rotorua isn't now set to host an additional MIQ?
Response
Reporter was provided with Mayor Chadwick’s statement
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Media: NewsHub
Topic: Government's MIQ decision
Enquiry
Reporter requested interview with Mayor Chadwick re news Rotorua not getting more MIQ facilities.
Response
Mayor Chadwick reinforced key points from her statement (see link above)
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Media: Local Focus
Topic: Government's MIQ decision
Enquiry
Following Mayor Chadwick’s statement regarding the decision to not have further MIQ facilities in Rotorua, reporter enquired as follows:
Thank you for this - I'm just wondering when did Hipkins make an official statement that there won't be a fourth MIQ in Rotorua. He told RNZ yesterday that is is unlikely, that's not the same as a definite no?
Thank you and I look forward to your response as there's a planned protest on Saturday.
Response
We noted that we had provided a link to the Minister’s release with the Mayor’s statement and highlighted this for the reporter.